Children Shouldn't Play With Guns
by Caffeine Induced
Summary: A one-shot about Raven and Red-X, inspired by a random tumblr dialogue prompt. Enjoy!


Raven would expect no one but Red-X to somehow manage to ruin her perfectly planned day. Of all the places he could get into a fight it had to be at her favorite park on the one day a month she gets completely to her self.

No titans, no communicator, no crime-fighting. Just some quiet! Is that so much to ask? Really, she's the daughter of the devil but even she deserves a little peace every now and then!

Raven adjusts the heavy bag on her shoulder and huffs. Rather irritated, she watches the match progress, quickly realizing she doesn't actually know who will win since she doesn't know X's opponent.

To be honest, she wouldn't even recognize Red-X if he weren't wearing his mask. Besides that he's dressed in a pair of jeans, a white shirt, and a brown leather jacket.

He must have been caught off guard. Not many people can catch him off guard, certainly never Robin. For this reason she studies the opponent closely.

He's has to be well into his forties. There are signs of aging on his face and he has gray mixed into his hair.

When the man rams his elbow into Red's jaw, Red stumbles back and ends up close to Raven. He seems to notice her out of the corner of his eye.

She's not in her uniform but she's also never had a secret identity so she's easy to recognize.

"Enjoying the show?" Red-X asks with a hint of annoyance.

If anyone has the right to be annoyed it's Raven. This is _her _day off. This is _her _favorite spot. "Waiting for it to be over actually."

If he's surprised by her answer he doesn't show it, charging the man and attacking with superior combat skills.

His opponent somehow manages to reflect attack with very little effort.

After Red finds himself in a choke hold and the activity lulls, Raven asks, "Can you take it somewhere else?"

Red makes a weird sound, a laugh snuffed out by the arm around his neck. "Oh yeah, let me just call a timeout real quick."

He breaks the hold and renews his attack which is when Raven notices the other man is lacking in almost every area. The only reason he seems to have lasted this long is because of what Raven can only describe as liquid armor, reflective silver dances across his body, absorbing every punch and kick Red-X throws at the man.

Red-X pulls a gun which surprises her since he's never used them in his encounters with the Titans. He fires off two round and had the other man not immediately ducked for cover he'd have hit him square in the kneecap.

He's something of a marksman, she muses.

A fist to the man's jaw has Red-X hissing in pain. His opponent presses his advantage and has Red-X in another debilitating hold in under a minute. Red-X's gun falls from his hand and the man kicks it away.

Raven follows it with her eyes. It skids across the sidewalk and bounces gently off her boot, loosing momentum.

"Cut in anytime, Sunshine."

She can't so his face but she imagines it will be turning red at this point. His fingers are white from how hard he's trying to break the hold. Every move he makes to break the hold no longer works, the armor intuitively blocking every hit.

Raven sighs and drops her bag. A dead Red-X at her favorite reading spot isn't going to do much for her day off.

The man begins dragging Red-X away as well as he can while Red-X drags his feet. Making slightly alarming choking sounds.

Raven picks up the gun and shouts, "Let him go!"

The man stops, but does let Red-X go. Instead, he laughs when he sees who spoke. "Or what, little girl? Will you kill me?"

During the entire fight the only time the man exuded true fear was when Red-X had the gun.

"What's the reaction time on that armour?" she asks, looking at the man down the barrel of the gun. "Sure it might stop a bullet but you have to know where it's hitting first."

The man straightens. "Children shouldn't play with guns."

"Who said I was playing?" Raven exhales and fires a single shot.

It hits the man square in the shoulder and he drops the knife, howling in pain. His blood pools down his arm at an alarming rate. He screams profanities and after gaining his wits, sprints away rather clumsily.

Raven tilts her head as she watches him go then picks her bag back up and takes a seat on the bench. She considers the gun for a moment and decides she'll drop it into a void tomorrow.

Red X brushes himself off but stays rooted in his spot. Disbelief floods through him as he watches her casually pull out a book and start reading.

Raven expects him to take this opportunity to run as well but he doesn't. He's clearly expecting her to say something but she ignores him and keeps reading.

"You let him get away."

"He seemed very determined to kill you, I'm sure he'll find you again." She flips the page of her book. "Make sure the final showdown happens out of this vicinity. This is my happy place."

She expects a quip about goths and being happy but it never comes.

Red X let's his surprise wear off and cautiously steps over to the goth and takes a seat on the far side of the bench.

Raven makes it through a few paragraphs before he interrupts her again, laughing. "I can't believe you shot him!"

Raven suppresses a smile. He really has a nice laugh when it's not laced with sarcasm, even if it is still modulated. "It was just a flesh wound."

No way she'll ever tell him she aiming to miss.

"But imagine what Robin will say," Red-X insists. "He's going to flip his lid!"

"What I do when I'm off duty is no concern of his. If you get any ideas about sewing seeds of mistrust between us by telling him, just remember I still have your gun."

Red X hums and says cautiously, "Somehow I'm much more threatened by you as a civilian than a hero."

**Author's note:****Yeah, Raven could have easily used her powers. And yeah, they're kinda ooc. Just let me have this!**


End file.
